VMware workstation, installing ESX Server or other virtual in virtual situations
Ok, so there are a number of reasons why you shouldn’t do this, however, it does have it’s purposes as well.
Proceed at your own risk and keep in mind performance might not be the best. I use it for testing mainly. You can use some of the information below to either install a test ESX environment inside VMware workstation on your physical machine, or you can also attempt to install VMware workstation inside a ESX based host.
Getting around Installation errors
So if you try to run either the vmware workstation or vmware server install, you will receive the following error message.
Well i say “boo” to that because i want to test a few things, and sometimes a virtual machine is just an easier/better way to test things.
First we need to extract out our main .exe and create an administrative install we can work with. You can do this using the /a command and then specifying the directory to install:
Once you have your install, you will need to install Orca from the SDK if you don’t already have it, found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A55B6B43-E24F-4EA3-A93E-40C0EC4F68E5&displaylang=en
Once you have Orca installed, you will want to right click on the MSI and click edit with Orca:
Once inside Orca, you will want to browse to the InstallUISequence Table:
Once there, find the VM_CheckVM action:
We want to delete this row:
Then we want to save and exit:
Now the next time you run the setup, you will be able to install either vmware workstation or vmware server on your ESX based virtual machine.
Setting the CPU on the virtual machine
It is recommended that set the CPU on the virtual machine to Intel-VT or AMD-VT
Picking the OS for the virtual machine (creation wizard)
I've seen recommendations for picking Red Hat Linux for your OS in the template, but i haven't verified that is a "must".
Editing .vmx files
Once you have vmware workstation installed, you will have to modify your virtual machine after you create it in order to power on the vm.
Open the new virtual machine's .VMX file in a text editor and make sure the following lines are present for each connected Ethernet adapter. ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
You'll need to add the following lines in the .VMX file in your "host" VM (modify the ESX .vmx if your host is on ESX) and your VMware Workstation .vmx if you are installing ESX inside of VMware workstation:
For Intel-based CPUs:
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "TRUE"
monitor_control.vt32 = "TRUE"
If the processor is AMD-based, replace the line monitor_control.vt32 = "TRUE" with monitor_control.enable_svm = "TRUE"
-Chris